“At nights the centre becomes a ghost town, punctuated by enclaves of life where tourists congregate in restaurants and bars near historic museums, galleries and theatres. Elsewhere local businesses and residents are long gone”

“It was the Stalker that spoke. Its voice grated on the senses, like a dozen knifeblades being drawn over metal and concrete, but beneath that there was a melancholic timbre, the impossibility of poetry lurking beneath monstrosity.”

“There was something clinging to the ceiling. A nightmarish figure of spikes and rails and blades, with six dimly glimmering eyes set into a squat head. Four of its limbs were driven into the ceiling, suspending it, and the other two reached toward Bearer and the Gun.”

“Once they had gotten over their initial fear, Earth’s leaders scaled back their plans to build bigger guns and instead focused on how best to ‘welcome Earth’s alien friends’ and initiate advantageous trade.”

“Towards the end of that initial period, the ships had seemed to become less substantial, evading the eye. They appeared completely opaque when regarded directly, but the eye seemed to slide around the wider masses, and when forced to focus on the sphere of spacecraft as a whole the eyes and brain began to throb painfully”